Lincoln County area

Population and density of Lincoln County

The Census Bureau estimates that 77,145 people lived in Lincoln County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #752 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 66 in South Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 65,159, the population has grown by 11,986 (+18.4%), compared with +5.5% for South Dakota as a whole.

With 577.3 square miles of land, that is 134 people per square mile (52 per km²), placing Lincoln County #829 nationally for density and #2 in South Dakota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the South Dakota median is 5.7. Put another way, there are about 4.8 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Lincoln County

9 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lincoln County. Together they are home to 67,422 people (87.4%); the other 9,723 (12.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sioux Falls city, with 41,645 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). The county seat, Canton city, has 3,001 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Harrisburg city grew fastest since then (+54.5%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Lincoln County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Lincoln County is a central county of the Sioux Falls, SD-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 314,638 residents on 3,057.9 square miles of land; Lincoln County accounts for 18.9% of the land and 24.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #97 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #171 by population.

ZIP codes

12 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lincoln County; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

570015700457013570145702757032570345703957064570775710657108

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Lincoln County

Lincoln County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Iowa. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Minnehaha County (806.9 mi²) and the smallest is Clay County (412 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lincoln County forms a block of 4,230.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 13.6%.

How big is Lincoln County compared with U.S. states?

Lincoln County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.8 times as much. South Dakota’s county land could hold about 131 areas the size of Lincoln County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 24 miles (38.7 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Lincoln County?

Lincoln County has more land than 1,509 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Lincoln County at #1,847 nationally by total area, 134 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Lincoln County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.